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A Central European Diaspora under the Shadow of World War II: The Galician Ukrainians in North America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2009

Extract

Sixty years after its conclusion, World War II still fills the world's memory. Massive demonstrations in China last winter recalled Japanese atrocities during the war, while just over a month ago the world marked the sixtieth anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Monuments and museums continue to be erected to commemorate the Holocaust. And films on the war, as the recent success of Downfall demonstrates, continue to attract viewers. Some of the things that happened during World War II seem to us to be unforgettable.

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Articles
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Copyright © Center for Austrian Studies, University of Minnesota 2006

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References

1 Ukrainians also emigrated to continental Western Europe and Latin America after the war. On the latter, see Serge, Cipko, The Making of a Community: Three Waves of Ukrainian Immigration to Argentina, 1897–1950 (Toronto, forthcoming).Google Scholar

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4 Soviet actions against UPA and other resistance (bandits, deserters, draft dodgers) between February 1944 and October 1945 resulted in 98,696 killed, 107,485 captured and arrested, and 92,219 surrendered. Jeffrey, Burds, “AGENTURA: Soviet Informants' Networks and the Ukrainian Rebel Underground in Galicia, 1944–1948, East European Politics and Societies 11, no. 1 (1997): 97.Google Scholar

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20 Lozynskyj, Askold S. to Eric W. Ober, president, CBS News Division, 24 October 1994. I have a copy of this and other letters protesting “The Ugly Face of Freedom” in my personal archive.Google Scholar

21 The evidence is presented in some detail in two unpublished reports Hendy prepared: Julian Hendy, “SS in Britain: Submission to the Independent Television Commission,” April 2000; Hendy, “SS in Britain: Submission to the Independent Television Commission: The 14th SS Division Galizien and War Crimes in Nizna Boca, Slovakia. October 1944,” October 2001.

22 Randy, Boswell, “Did Ukrainians Who Fought with the SS End up in Canada,” Edmonton Journal, 17 08 2005.Google Scholar

23 Tzvetan, Todorov, “The Lunchbox and the Bomb,” IWM Newsletter (Summer 2003): 81.Google Scholar

24 Sharfman, “The Quest for Justice,” 69.

25 Directed by Slavko Nowytski.

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30 See, for example, Aleksei, Babenyshev [Maksudov], Poteri naseleniia SSSR [Population losses of the USSR] (Benson, 1989).Google Scholar

31 “In analyzing the events of 1939–41 in Western Ukraine, three points are most important. First, because Western Ukrainians had to deal with not one but two alien totalitarian invaders during World War II, they were forced to make choices that other peoples did not have to confront. Second, based on very recent and painful experiences—the Soviet crushing of attempts to establish Ukrainian independence in 1917–20, the famine of 1933, the purges of the 1930s, and especially the occupation of 1939–41—Ukrainians had good reason to view the Soviets as their primary enemy and, after the German defeat at Stalingrad in 1943, as the greatest threat they would face in the future. Third, when many Western Ukrainians chose to side with the Germans to fight against the Soviets, they acted in what they perceived to be their best interests, as have other nations in similar circumstances.” Orest, Subtelny, “The Soviet Occupation of Western Ukraine, 1939–41: An Overview,” in Ukraine during World War II, ed. Boshyk, , 1213.Google Scholar

32 See also Georgii, Kas'ianov, “Razrytaia mogila: Golod 1932–1933 godov v ukrainskoi istoriografii, politike i massovom soznanii” [The excavated grave: The famine of 1932–33 in Ukrainian historiography, politics, and mass consciousness], Ab Imperio [From empire] 3 (2004): 131Google Scholar; and David, Marples, “Stalin's Emergent Crime: Popular and Academic Debates on the Ukrainian Famine of 1932–33,” Journal of Ukrainian Studies 29, nos. 1–2 (2004): 295309.Google Scholar

33 Lubomyr, Luciuk, In Fear of the Barbed Wire Fence: Canada's First National Internment Operations and the Ukrainian Canadians, 1914–1920 (n.p., 2001).Google ScholarFrances, Swyripa, “The Politics of Redress: The Contemporary Ukrainian-Canadian Campaign,” in Enemies Within: Italian and Other Internees in Canada and Abroad, ed. Franca, Iacovetta, Roberto, Perin, and Angelo, Principe (Toronto, 2000), 355–78.Google Scholar Marples, “Stalin's Emergent Crime,” 303. Luciuk, , “Wasyl Odynsky a Victim of Modern-Day Witch-Hunt,” The Ukrainian Weekly, 25 03 2001.Google Scholar “Ukrainian Canadians call for Inquiry on Soviet and Communist War Criminals in Canada,” Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association Media Release, 9 July 2002; Kirk, Makin, “Debate over War Crimes Gets Heated: Ukrainian, Jewish Groups Disagree over Whom Canada Should Prosecute,” The Globe and Mail (Toronto), 25 April 2005Google Scholar; Luciuk, , “Museum Must Include All Victims, ”letter to the editor, Winnipeg Free Press, 15 April 2003Google Scholar; Luciuk, , “Museum Must Recall All Who Were Killed,” The Ukrainian Weekly, 16 04 2000.Google Scholar

34 The NKVD itself calculated that 97 percent of the victims were Poles. Oleh, Romaniv and Inna, Fedushchak, Zakhidnoukrains'ka trahediia 1941 [The west Ukrainian tragedy of 1941] (L'viv, 2002), 335.Google Scholar

35 Sharfman, , “The Quest for Justice,” 73Google Scholar; Satzewich, , The Ukrainian Diaspora, 173–74.Google Scholar

36 This was written in a polemic with me: Bohdan, Vitvitsky, “History, Its Uses and Its Misuses, Prof. Himka and Getting off Our Knees,” The Ukrainian Weekly, 24 04 2005.Google Scholar

37 John-Paul, Himka, “Krakivski visti and the Jews, 1943: A Contribution to the History of Ukrainian-Jewish Relations during the Second World War,” Journal of Ukrainian Studies 21, no. 1–2 (1996): 8195.Google ScholarI am at present revising the draft of another article that adduces additional cases: “Ethnicity and the Reporting of Mass Murder: Krakivs'ki visti, the NKVD Murders of 1941, and the Vinnytsia Exhumation.”Google Scholar

38 Tony, Judt, Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945 (New York, 2005), 827.Google Scholar

39 Tony, Judt, “The Past Is Another Country: Myth and Memory in Postwar Europe,” in The Politics of Retribution in Europe: World War II and Its Aftermath, ed. István, Deák, Gross, Jan T., and Tony, Judt (Princeton, 2000), 307.Google Scholar

40 “Urgent Appeal on the Case of Wasyl Odynsky,” 20 January 2005.

41 Early in 2005, both Knight Ridder newspapers and the Ukrainian Web news service Brama criticized Myron Kuropas's statements on Jews in The Ukrainian Weekly. E-Poshta reprinted an editorial defending Kuropas by Marco Levystky, editor of Ukrainian News in Edmonton (“Dr. Kuropas Victimized by Hatchet Job,” 7 March 2005). I responded to this piece, arguing that Kuropas's views were indeed resonant of anti-Semitism. This letter was not accepted, and I ended up publishing it in Brama (John-Paul Himka, “The Kuropas Affair: Further Discussion,” Brama,23 March 2005). E-Poshta did, however, reprint Bohdan Vitvitsky's long polemic against me (“History, Its Uses and Its Misuses”) from The Ukrainian Weekly.Google Scholar

42 Kuropas, Myron B., “Ukraine under Nazi Rule,” The Ukrainian Weekly, 18 07 2004.Google Scholar

43 Bohdan, Vitvitsky, “The Real Problem Is Ukrainophobia,” The Ukrainian Weekly, 19 12 2004.Google Scholar Criticism of anti-Jewish columns: John-Paul, Himka, “Comments about Kuropas Column,” The Ukrainian Weekly, 12 12 2004Google Scholar; Natalie, and Ihor, Gawdiak, “Jews in Ukraine Not Monolithic Entity,” The Ukrainian Weekly, 26 12 2004Google Scholar; Andrew, Sorokowski, “Ukrainian-Jewish Relations: Observations,” The Ukrainian Weekly, 23 01 2005Google Scholar; John-Paul, Himka, “Let's Clean up Our House Now,” The Ukrainian Weekly, 6 03 2005Google Scholar; M., Szul, “Building Bridges Is Most Important,” The Ukrainian Weekly, 3 04 2005. With the exception of my “Let's Clean up Our House,” all these criticisms are in the form of letters to the editor.Google Scholar

44 Sofiia, Hrachova, “Vony zhyly sered nas?” [Did they live among us?], Krytyka 9, no. 4 (90) (04 2005): 2226.Google ScholarMykhailo, Savkiv, Mariika, Dupliak, and Dmytro, Shtohryn, “Ukraintsi SShA zasudzhuiut' anytsemityzm” [Ukrainians of the USA condemn anti-Semitism], Krytyka 9, no. 6 (92) (06 2005): 32.Google Scholar On the same page is “Proty ksenofobii, za evropeis'ku Ukrainu. Zaiava ukrains'koi inteligentsii” [Against xenophobia, for a European Ukraine]. This is signed by leading intellectuals and academics, mainly from Ukraine but also from the diaspora. John-Paul, Himka [Ivan Khymka], “Antysemityzm, diialoh, samopiznannia” [Anti-Semitism, dialogue, and self-examination], Krytyka 9, no.5 (91) (05 2005): 18.Google Scholar

45 Max, Pyziur, “Lessons from the Recent Controversy Surrounding Myron Kuropas,” Brama, 10 February 2005; Paul Peter Jesep, “The Diaspora's Future,” Brama, 11 February 2005. See also Himka, “The Kuropas Affair.”Google Scholar

46 Judt, Postwar, 830.

47 Satzewich, The Ukrainian Diaspora, 189.